CONTENIDOS PROGRAMÁTICOS MÍNIMOS POR ÁREAS

Community college students represent a growing and important part of postsecondary education, and enrollments continue to climb despite the effects of the recent 2008 recession, yet the literature on the effects of these institutions on student development and retention is minimal compared to that of traditional, four-year institutions. Pascarella (1997) discusses how little we know about community colleges, despite the huge role they play in American higher education. Community colleges are “often regarded as a catch-basin for those few students unable or unwilling to enter ‘regular colleges’” (p. 15). Pascarella goes on to discuss how the dominant view of both the higher education establishment and the public at large is that community colleges form a “peripheral part of the collegiate system, a catch basin for those few students unable or unwilling to enter ‘regular’ colleges” (p. 4). Wild and Ebbers (2002) discuss how some early research exists on community colleges and student retention; however, a much more thorough understanding and integration of all theories of retention with regards to community college students is needed. And McIntosh and Rouse (2009) state how “two-year colleges have long been the stepchildren of the higher education family of institutions, despite the fact that they are the main contact with higher education for a large proportion of young people” (p. 20). In his 1991 study with Patrick Terenzini, How College Affects Students, Pascarella states how “we realized it was almost totally skewed in the direction of students in four-year colleges and universities, despite the fact that over a third of college students are enrolled in community colleges” (p. 15). The nature of community college students as well as their characteristics and enrollment patterns

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makes the study of the impact of community colleges on students both challenging and difficult.

This study is primarily concerned with the effects of on-campus housing on first- year student retention rates at public, two-year community colleges in the United States, as well as any relationship between living on campus and student retention with regard to age, financial aid, graduation rates, race, and sex. Given the growing body of literature about the impact of community colleges upon student learning and development, as well as the increase in the number of two-year campuses offering campus housing to their students, the literature about any relationship between living on a community college campus and first-year student retention remains elusive at best. Studies of traditional, four-year institutions (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005; Astin, 1999) have shown a direct correlation between living on campus and increased student retention rates. Given the low retention rates of first-year students at two-year institutions and the relative lack of information on community college retention models, especially as it relates to living on campus, the nature and purpose of this research becomes even more relevant. The retention of students at community colleges is an ongoing and costly challenge facing community college administrators across the nation (Chen, 2011), and has become an important consideration for today’s community colleges for several reasons, which will be discussed later. Despite community colleges’ enrollment increases, a quarter of entering fall-term students do not return for the subsequent spring term. Almost half, on average, are gone by the second fall term, and fewer than half of community-college students who aspire to earn associate or bachelor's degrees or transfer to four-year institutions actually do so (McClenney, 2009). A recent study by Habley, Bloom, and

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Robbins (2012) puts the retention rate of public, two-year community colleges at 55.4%. Mcclenney also states that the most significant educational challenge for community colleges is providing remedial education for the large numbers of students who are underprepared, citing data from “Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count,” which indicates that more than 250,000 students, many of whom were assessed as needing remedial classes, never made it to college-level courses.

This chapter begins with a discussion of the background and evolution of community colleges in the United States. Next, a discussion is presented about the overall purpose and goals of community colleges including types of programs offered, traits of community college students, and the community college curriculum. A discussion of the unique problem of student retention/persistence that faces most public community colleges in the United States today follows. The origins of housing on community college campuses and reasoning for building housing on these campuses are then discussed. Finally, a review of the relevant literature with regard to student retention studies related to public community colleges follows, as well as a review of the literature related to the effects of on-campus housing on student retention.

The Origins and Evolution of Community Colleges

The community college is a “distinctively American institution” (Boggs, 2010) and a

creation of twentieth century higher education. The first community colleges date back as far as 1862. The term “community college” originated in 1946 with President Harry S Truman’s Commission on Higher Education, which released a report in December of 1947 emphasizing equal educational opportunities for all aspiring college students regardless of economic limitations. Shortly afterward, the term “community college”

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became popularized and began to refer to all two year academic institutions (Shaner, 2012). Before there were community colleges as we know them today, their predecessors were the junior colleges and normal schools of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. During the 1880s normal schools were created as a form of alternative secondary education for those students who wished to teach as a profession. As states adopted compulsory secondary education laws and teacher certification standards, the demand for qualified teachers grew. Many of the first two-year colleges were primarily institutes, such as the Lewis Institute, established in 1896, and the Bradley Polytechnic Institute established in 1897. According to Ratcliffe (2002):

The vocational education movement of the late nineteenth century, the emphasis on technical education during the years of the Great Depression and World War II, the career education initiatives of the 1970s and 1980s, and contemporary workforce-development programs of states and the federal government have insured that vocational, technical, pre-professional, and para-professional programs are mainstays of the community college. (p. 1)

Although the roots of this uniquely American contribution to higher education extend to several specialized two‐year institutions that began in the late 19th century, most community college historians point to the founding of Joliet Junior College, in Illinois, in 1901 as the true beginning of the American community college movement. It is the oldest community college still in operation. William Rainey Harper, the president of the University of Chicago, and J. Stanley Brown, the principal of Joliet High School at the time, collaborated to found Joliet Junior College in order to expand educational opportunity and to prepare the very best students for the senior college at the University.

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Harper's idea when forming Joliet Junior College was to provide another educational opportunity for the overwhelming number of soon-to-be college freshmen. According to the American Association of Community Colleges (2012):

The American liberal arts college provided inadequate rigor and quality, thinking their programs akin to the German gymnasium (or high school) rather than true university-grade work. He [Harper] isolated and strengthened the first two years of undergraduate study in an organizational unit of the university labeled The Junior College. Further, he urged denominational colleges in the area to reduce their curriculum to two years and send their students on to the university, indicating that formal arrangements could be made for the acceptance of their students' work toward the baccalaureate degree. He also advocated that high schools extend their curriculum to include the first two years of college.

Many students who wanted to continue studies after high school were not qualified to gain entrance into a traditional four-year institution. Community colleges would also provide students with the liberal arts curricula that could assist them with transferring into a four-year institution. In 1901, there were about nine two-year junior colleges across the United States (“The Evolution,” 2012).

After Joliet Junior College was established, junior colleges began to grow rapidly in the United States. “By 1920, over 200 junior colleges were established throughout the United States” (Catt, 1998, p. 7). The large influx of immigrants into the United States during the first two decades of the twentieth century also fueled the growth of community colleges. The suffrage movement increased enrollment as well. “In 1920, less than 4% of the American population went to college. By the end of the 1920s, 12% of high school

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graduates were attending college” (“Community Colleges,” 2012). National associations were founded around the role of the junior college. In 1920, the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) was formed as a way to organize the various institutions throughout the nation. In 1921, the American Association of Junior Colleges (AAJC) was created which provided a forum for the large number of emerging institutions, including high schools providing two-year collegiate programs, women's colleges, military institutes, private junior colleges, and technical institutes. By 1930 community colleges existed in all but five states.

Between 1930 and 1970, enrollments grew exponentially at junior colleges. During the Great Depression in the 1930s, community colleges began offering job-training programs to ease widespread unemployment. After World War II, the conversion of military industries to create consumer goods created skilled jobs. This economic transformation, along with the GI Bill, created the drive for more higher education options. Programs and services for adults, for the continuing education of workers in the skilled trades, technical occupations, and courses and programs of value to personal and corporate development in the local community became distinguishing features of community and junior colleges across the United States. After World War II, this function grew in prominence as community colleges were looked upon to provide educational services to the entire local community and not just traditional college-age groups. From this perspective, the role of service to the surrounding community has become fundamental to the definition of the public community college mission. In 1948, the Truman Commission suggested the creation of a network of public, community-based colleges to serve local needs. During the 1950s, more community colleges started

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receiving public funding, which contributed to the establishment of various state community colleges as public educational institutions. Community colleges became a national network of institutions in the 1960s with 457 public community colleges opening during that time, more than the total in existence before that decade. Providing credit and noncredit courses and nonacademic educational services to the area served became a priority for community colleges in the 1970s and 1980s.

The decade of the 1980s saw enrollment growth and the expansion of community college programs. Large waves of immigration propelled the expansion of community college programs to new segments of the population, as these programs were needed in order to meet the needs of immigrant students with little formal education. “Throughout the 1980s, community colleges also expanded to provide continuing education programs and services for adults, including education for skilled trades, technical occupations, and allied professions, as well as courses for both personal and corporate development” (“The Evolution,” 2012). The 1980s and 1990s witnessed efforts to reform education as lawmakers in various states proposed that community colleges help to prepare qualified teachers and provide them with continuing education and professional development. The American Association of Community and Junior Colleges, formerly the AAJC, and now known as the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), advocated that community colleges work with area high schools to develop new, intensive, technical- education programs. These programs consisted of two years of science and technology preparatory work in a high school, followed by specialized technical training in the community college. The American Association for Higher Education (AAHE) promoted the creation of two-year and four-year college partnerships with high schools to

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strengthen the continuity of curriculum and students between the cultures of secondary and higher education.

The past one hundred years has witnessed tremendous growth in community colleges in numbers and educational options, and they have been able to change with the times. No other segment of higher education is more responsive to the local community and workforce needs. “From relatively modest beginnings at the turn of the 20th century, community colleges now enroll close to half of all U.S. undergraduates” (“Students At,” 2012). Community colleges educate more than half the nation's undergraduates...Since 1901 at least 100 million people have attended community colleges” (“Community Colleges,” 2012). According to Boggs (2010):

Community colleges provide access to higher education to the most diverse student body in history: age, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic status, and degree of disability. Forty‐seven percent of first‐generation college students, 53% of Hispanic students, 45% of Black students, 52% of Native American students, and 45% of Asian/Pacific Islander students attend community colleges. Although the average age of community college students is 28, 46% of them are age 21 or younger. (p. 3)

Although many countries possess binary higher education systems accessible only to individuals with exceptional performance on government-sponsored examinations, the American postsecondary education system has remained committed to developing educational programs dedicated to the needs and expectations of its society. “Especially in times of economic uncertainty, community colleges provide an affordable option to both recent high school graduates and returning adult learners” (Boggs, 2010, p. 2).

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Originally developed as open‐admissions junior colleges offering the first two years of a baccalaureate education, community colleges have evolved into comprehensive institutions serving the postsecondary educational needs of communities and preparing students to transfer to traditional universities or to enter the workforce directly.

Though community colleges have a distinct educational mission, they also have many shared practices in common with one another, such as open access and admissions. For the most part, community colleges offer admission to all who possess a high school education, in addition to providing assistance to adults in completing their secondary education. Community colleges have provided educational programs and services to people who otherwise would not have enrolled in a college or university. They also attract students who live in geographic proximity and who seek low-cost postsecondary education (“Community Colleges,” 2012). Community colleges expanded the scope of higher-education offerings by adding to the curriculum courses of study that meet the educational needs of an advanced and technological society by offering to such groups as displaced homemakers, students with disabilities, those needing adult basic education, and the unemployed seeking job retraining. Such additions have broadened their overall curricula and provided access to college for those who otherwise could not afford it. Purpose

The basic role and function of the community college is to create centers of educational opportunity that welcome all students who desire to learn, regardless of wealth, heritage, or previous academic experience. The distinct contribution of community colleges to American higher education is the adaptive nature of their mission. According to Vaughan (2006):

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The community college's mission is the fountain from which all of its activities flow. In simplest terms, the mission of the community college is to provide education for individuals, many of whom are adults, in its service region. Most community college missions have basic commitments to: serve all segments of society through an open-access admissions policy that offers equal and fair treatment to all students; provide a comprehensive educational program; serve its community as a community-based institution of higher education; and provide lifelong learning. (p. 8)

They represent education’s local, front-line connection with society. “To fulfill this mission, community colleges provide general and liberal education; vocational and technical education; adult and continuing education; and remedial, and college- preparatory education…these functions have grown to predominate in response to local needs and expectations” (Ratcliffe, 2002, p. 1).

A comprehensive community college incorporates an eclectic set of educational philosophies and purposes into its mission. It’s most dominant and historical feature is its intimate relationship to the life of the community it serves. The contemporary and prevalent view of the American community college is that of a local institution characterized by its connection to the surrounding community it serves. The evolution of this view from that of junior college or private preparatory college was sparked in 1947 by President Harry Truman’s President's Commission on Higher Education, which suggested the name “community college” be applied to this institution, which was designed to serve local community educational needs. Also significant in its development was the advocacy of the Carnegie Commission on Higher for the establishment of

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community colleges within commuting distance of every adult. These commissions, together with the Higher Education Act of 1964, enabled community colleges to be rapidly established to meet the growing demand for higher education among the World War II generation and their children.

The mission of the community college, like that of other institutions, has evolved in relation to social context. The community, junior, or technical college was just one phase in the development of this particular institution, which was especially true of those with origins connected to educating teachers. As the profession matured, these institutions expanded their programs to broader fields of study, and even becoming baccalaureate- granting institutions. Many liberal arts colleges, comprehensive colleges, and doctorate- granting universities evolved from private junior colleges and technical institutes. California State University-Fresno, the University of Texas at El Paso, and the University of Southern Colorado all began as two-year colleges. When these institutions became baccalaureate-granting institutions, they adopted more selective admissions processes and broadened their curriculum, which left an educational vacuum due to the lack of open admissions, adult education, and two-year vocational and technical programs. The emergence of these urban regional universities did not alleviate the need for local community colleges, as public demand in these cities led to the establishment of new community colleges.

The past century has witnessed the transformation of the junior college into the community college. Community colleges promote educational opportunity and access to college and provide varied curricula and programs for students of all ages. In 2002 the Gates Foundation provided support for seventy small high schools to develop associate

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degree programs, setting in motion changes similar to those in the 1920s and 1930s that brought about many new two-year colleges. As society changes, so will its institutions of higher learning (“Community Colleges,” 2012). These institutions provide their communities with a wide variety of curricular offerings, programs, and degrees in order to provide opportunities to all those seeking an education in order to gain the requisite skills and knowledge to compete in today’s advanced, technological society.

Governance

The nature of governance at the community college level is a patchwork of different models. According to Schuetz (1999), “governance in America's community colleges is virtually a state-by-state choice with some of the variations being: state vs. local, elected vs. appointed, state appointed vs. locally appointed, taxing authority vs. no taxing authority, voluntary shared governance vs. mandated shared governance, and various combinations thereof” (p. 1). State and local governance and coordination of community